Is this the best that we can do?

Perhaps my cynicism is getting out of hand, but were these candidates really the best that we could find, out of all 250 million of us?

Obama. Charismatic, well spoken, and skillful, but mostly untested. Let’s hope he manages to craft a good team and make some progress.

Biden. How can a professional politician continue to make such brain-dead statements? How can anyone trust him when he says such blatantly moronic things, in public, directly to the news media? How could anyone select him as a running mate, or express confidence in him? I’m not sure he’s much better than Palin. Seriously.

McCain. Why would anyone want a leader who was behind the mindless smear campaign against Obama (associates with terrorists, is a socialist)? And who then repudiated those messages, even as he was paying to have them sent out? Two-faced jerk. He was losing the election, but did he really have to lose his class, too? And now we’re supposed to respect him? At least Obama managed to avoid the kind of cruel character assassination that revealed who the real McCain is.

Palin. What a joke. Can’t remember what news papers she reads? Thinks Africa is a country? Now that the election is behind us, even the Republican campaign staff are ridiculing her inadequacies. How anyone could have seen anything but “moron” when they looked at her is beyond me. But they did. And that is really depressing. Her selection by McCain demonstrated that he did not take the responsibility of guiding this country seriously. “Win at any cost” is not a strategy that respects our country.

It seems as if most of the people who rise to the top of the political soup are unprincipled chameleons who appeal to the neuronically challenged by reducing complex problems to simple slogans. None of the candidates stuck to their guns: they danced around the tough issues, adjusting their position to try to appeal to as many people as possible. The debates were endless repetitions of the same talking points, over and over again. The attacks were predictable, and were repeated even after the charges had been answered, over and over again. It was more important to attack than to actually explain positions or differences.

This may be the best system in the world, but the idea that, after 200 years, it is a good one makes me laugh out loud. Of course, most of the blame goes to The People, those who tolerate this crap. So long as people will allow themselves to be convinced that Palin was a qualified leader of this country, this country is in real trouble. And don’t get me started on the Electoral College. One man, one vote? Not even close.

I’ll try to keep quiet about this crap for another four years. But don’t push me.